1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of binding leaves of an album, such as a photograph album, to the album cover. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an album of the type in which leaves are fused to a binder element which is attached to the spine of the cover.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photograph album typically has an album cover to which are attached leaves on which photographs are attached for display. The leaves in some previously known photograph albums are made of sheets of cardboard which are attached by hinges to the spine of the album cover. The hinges allow the leaves to be turned.
As shown in FIG. 1, one method of binding cardboard leaves to the spine of the album cover includes the steps of riveting a metal ring binder element to the spine of the album cover and attaching the cardboard leaves to the rings of the binder element. An album 10 is shown in which cardboard display leaves 12 are held together by rings 14 of a ring binder element 16. The ring binder element 16 is attached to the spine 18 of album cover 20 with rivets 22. Alternatively, referring to FIG. 2, an album is shown in which the album cover does not have a spine. Cardboard display leaves 24 are held between front cover flap 26 and back cover flap 28 by ring 30.
Some photograph albums are of the type in which the leaves are transparent plastic, and are in the form of pockets for holding photographs. An example of such pocket type leaves 50 having openings 58 is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Typically, the pocket type leaves or "pockets" are attached to a metal binder element as in the case of the cardboard leaves in FIG. 1.
The albums shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, however, are subject to certain limitations and drawbacks. The metal ring binder elements are typically bulky in size, and cause the resulting album not to resemble that of a bound book which has been found to be undesirable when the album is shelved next to bound books. Moreover, the binder elements described above are expensive to manufacture. In addition, for the album shown in FIG. 1, its external appearance is blemished by the presence of rivets 22 showing on the surface of the spine 18.